


Of Paladins and Companions

by wacko101



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-15
Updated: 2019-11-24
Packaged: 2020-12-16 23:35:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21044639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wacko101/pseuds/wacko101
Summary: When Lance is fifteen years old, a madman in a box crashes on the beach near his home. And nothing is ever the same.





	1. Meet the Doctor

The universe was infinite, and even the most advanced species had a limit to how far their universe reached, beyond that, was still the unknown.

Lance knew how big the universe was better than anybody.

He knew that the part of the universe Allura and Coran knew was vastly different then the universe Lance had come to know.

The part of the universe that Lance had been around.

After all, Allura and Coran had never heard of the Andromeda Galaxy, or the Milky Way Galaxy, in fact, the Galra, who had had ten thousand years to expand their empire, was still just beginning to discover the human's corner of the universe.

So yeah, Lance could understand how he had never heard about the Galra before now.

And he could understand how Allura and Coran had never heard of the Daleks.

Only now, the Daleks were here, and there was no Doctor.

The team gathered in the command room, the communications screen was lit up, and the beings of Lance's nightmares were displayed on the other side.

Three Daleks, one front and center, and one on each side.

And Lance felt his blood run cold.

Allura, diplomatic brave Allura, who always tried peace, first had no chance against these beings.

As soon as her routine introduction was over, Lance awaited the Dalek's response because he knew he would be fighting his way out of this.

And sure enough...

"We are the Daleks! Prepare to be exterminated!"

His teammate's jaws dropped at the unexpected violent response, but Lance was already heading towards the Blue Lion's hanger.

But it was too late, the Daleks, as always, had taken the first step and were already aboard the castle. A massive explosion accompanied their arrival along with the flashing red lights of the sirens as they started to wail.

Shiro, as always, reacted immediately.

"Everyone bayards out! Be prepared to fight!"

Lance did as Shiro had ordered on instinct, he doubted that his blaster, despite it being far more advanced than any earth gun, would be enough to take down a whole ship of Daleks.

Lance had to think, and he had to think fast.

And then, he saw that the comlink was still up. It was all in Altean, but Lance had been in space long enough now to understand the basics.

And even though he didn't have his cell phone on him anymore, the chip in the back making it what the Doctor had called a 'superphone,' he still had the one number in it memorized.

He had starred at it for hours, in the middle of the night when he couldn't sleep because he had gotten so used to the walls of the TARDIS and the faint humming sound that always seemed to echo through the walls and the floorboards.

He had starred at it when the Garrison had brought him to the brink of exhaustion when he wondered if all the frustration and pain of going through the program was worth it.

He would bring the phone out, and bring the number up, and he would star at it. His thumb was hovering over the call button. His other hand was fiddling with the necklace the Doctor had given him.

Wanting desperately to go back to how it had been, with the Doctor and the TARDIS, next stop everywhere.

He never pressed the call button; he knew that the Doctor was probably off somewhere, saving someone or going on some adventure. He didn't have time to entertain Lance.

And so there he stayed, back on Earth. But he had known what was out there. And he was in the right place to get back to space, to go on those adventures again.

And so, he would stare at that number, until eventually, he had memorized it.

And now, even though it wasn't a superphone, he figured that a castle floating through space with a magic crystal powering it would have to do.

So while the others drew their weapons and moved towards the door, ready to fight, Lance ran towards the coms and dialed the one number in the entire universe that could get them out of this.

No one noticed what he had done; they had been too distracted by the door being completely disintegrated to see him making a phone call.

But the message was sent, and it was a message that the Doctor could never ignore.

Never once, in all the time that Lance had known him, had the Doctor ever ignored a call for help.

And once the Doctor had locked on to the message, he would find Lance's necklace and be able to pinpoint his exact location.

Only half a dozen Daleks entered the room, but, Lance rationalized, that was all the Daleks ever really needed when they thought they were going to win. And the Daleks always thought that they were going to win.

Keith, hot-headed fierce Keith, was swinging his sword down on the Daleks before anyone else had a chance to react.

Keith was going to die, Lance realized, there was nothing a sword could do to the armor of the Daleks. But what was worse was that Keith's actions sprung everyone else into motion.

As Lance had expected, Keith's sword bounced off the Dalek's side with a loud CLANG! The shock vibrated up Keith's arm, visibly throwing Keith off and forcing him back.

Pidges weapon was also ineffective, the electricity it generated doing nothing to them, and the hook sliding off their bodies just as easily as Keith's sword had.

Hunks blaster was the most effective, hitting the Daleks in the side and forcing them back.

And still, the Dalek's moved forwards.

Lance grabbed his blaster, leveling it towards the nearest Dalek, aiming straight at the eyestalk.

The team had regrouped, back to back like they so often did in training, as the Daleks slowly surrounded them.

Allura tried talking to them again.

"Please, we had no intention of hurting you; we were just passing through."

"We have no interest in your words." The Dalek in front of Allura responded to her, in the screeching voice that they all shared.

"No mercy."

The Dalek was going to kill Allura. And after everything that Allura had been through, this was not how she deserved to die.

Lance squeezed his eyes shut. The team wasn't prepared for the Daleks; no one was prepared for the Daleks.

And their only hope was a madman in a box.

But there was no time to wait for his mad Doctor.

"Wait!" Lance yelled, retracting his Bayard. Somehow, holding a gun didn't seem right when he was talking about the Doctor; that wasn't the Doctors way.

"The Doctor." Lance blurted out, desperate to stop the Dalek from killing Allura. The entire team and Coran had shifted towards Allura; they were all doing what they had been trained to do, protect your teammate. However, Lance thought that at this moment, what they were doing was more than training. This was a more primal instinct, protect your family.

Lance's words worked.

All of the Daleks shifted their attention towards him.

"You know of the Doctor?!" The Dalek in front of Shiro screeched at him.

His teammate's attention locked onto him, looks of confusion filling everyone's faces, but Lance didn't have time to stop and explain it to them.

He had to save their lives.

"I used to travel with the Doctor." Admitting it out loud was strange, never once had Lance said it out loud, who was there to tell it to? No one he knew would understand, and anyone he did tell would think that he was crazy.

But the Daleks knew what it meant.

"You were his companion?!" One of the Daleks shrieked, but Lance had long ago given up identifying which one because if there was one thing that Lance had learned from the Doctor, was that one way to stall for time to come up with a plan was by talking.

And Lance was very good at talking.

"That's right!" Lance said, taking a step forward and feeling only a little satisfaction over the fear that was pounding in his heart when the Daleks didn't move to attack him.

He had their attention.

Lance could feel himself talking, but he couldn't hear what he was saying, just continued to rant about what he had done with the Doctor, trying to find a way out of this. But the others were still surrounded by the Daleks, despite all the attention being on him.

And then miraculously, Lance's necklace started to feel warm.

And Lance grinned, because the Doctor had always enjoyed making a bit of a flashy entrance.

"And you know what?" Lance asked the Daleks, coming back into himself as he continued to grin.

He could feel the question hanging in the air.

"I was fifteen when the Doctor crashed into the ocean and swept me up into the sky, and let me tell you; there is one thing you never, never, want to do when you are an adult in charge of a child."

Lance took a step back towards his teammates, feeling their gaze bore into his back, but it didn't matter, they needed to be as close to him as possible for this to work.

"You never want to lose a child."

There was a faint sound now, and a soft wind seemed to be picking up in the room coming from nowhere.

"And you certainly never want to lose a child in space. But," Lance continued, "If you do lose a kid, you want to make sure that you can find them no matter where they've found themselves."

By now, the Daleks had realized what was happening, but it was too late.

The walls were starting to materialize around them; the sound of the TARDIS had grown impossibly loud.

And then it was silent.

Lance turned around; everyone was in the box with him. Everyone had made it.

And then, Lance saw the Doctor.

The Doctor who was stepping away from his control panel, turning around to greet him or to lecture him or who knows what because Lance didn't give him the chance to do anything.

Lance had already sprinted forwards towards the Doctor and wrapped his arms around him in a big hug and had felt more like a kid then he had in a very long time as he clung onto the Doctor.

The Doctor, as always, was slow to respond to affection, carefully placing his arms around Lance as he clung onto him like a Koala and refused to let go.

"It's okay Lance, your okay." Was whispered into his ear, and Lance just grabbed on tighter for a moment longer before pulling away, feeling much lighter with just those simple words.

"Lance?"

It was Hunk, his best friend through everything, who had asked so many questions just by saying his name.

Lance turned to look at them, they didn't seem scared, weary maybe, but that was understandable. The inside of the TARDIS was similar to the inside of the castleship, so it wasn't much of a shock to them, not like it would have been if they had walked in through the front door. But they had almost died, only being saved after being snatched from their home. And their friend who they had trusted with their lives was hugging a strange man that appeared to be human.

Lance took a deep breath, facing everyone.

"Guy's this is the Doctor, and when I was fifteen years old, he abducted me after he crash-landed on the beach..."


	2. When Lance Met the Doctor

When Lance was fifteen, he nearly died.

His family had left him alone for the weekend, the rest of them heading off to visit family friends, leaving him to study to get into the Garrison.

And as nice as it was to be left alone for the weekend to study, and he needed to study if he was going to be accepted into the Garrison, and he had to be accepted into the Garrison. It was his dream to fly among the stars.

The stars were indescribably beautiful, and he could feel it like a pull in his gut, he had to fly through the sky someday.

He just had to.

But his family was probably surfing right now, eating ice cream and maybe even playing soccer on the beach.

And he was reading about Physics.

He had been studying for hours already, he thought to himself. Would a small break hurt? Probably not; besides, he reasoned, it would only be a quick walk on the beach to clear his head. Maybe get something to eat, too.

And then he would come straight back and study.

The beach, just like the stars, was something that Lance loved. He could feel the pull of the waves around his ankles, so firm and yet so gentle.

But Lance was not fooled.

The Ocean was an ever-changing, unstoppable force, and if it wished, it would swallow him up and never let him go.

But Lance was not afraid.

He had never been afraid of the Ocean.

The Ocean was his home, and the stars were his dream.

So when he arrived at the beach, it was at most a two-minute walk from his house to the beach, he walked straight up to the water until his ankles were submerged and stared up at the sky.

The stars were already out, shining brightly by the thousands; it was such a clear night. The ocean lapped at his ankles, slowly sinking his feet into the sand as if asking him to stay.

And he did stay, he stayed and stared up at the sky, finding the constellations that he had known since childhood.

Except, he saw something out of the corner of his eye.

It was like a flash of light, blinding him temporarily, and it quickly had Lances' full attention.

Because the flash of light had come from the sky.

But it wasn't a flash of light.

Something was crashing, and it was on fire.

Lance only managed to squeak surprise before he was diving forwards into the water to avoid the falling object that seemed to be heading straight for him.

For a minute, Lance's only focus was on swimming forwards, to get away, listening as there was a tremendous BOOM! As whatever the object was made an impact with the ground. Lance bobbed back to the surface, taking a breath and blinking water out of his eyes as he spun around in the water, relieved that he had left his shoes at the beaches entrance and was only swimming in his tank top and shorts and not his sneakers and jacket also.

Finally, Lance decided that nothing else was going to be falling from the sky and started trudging through the shallow water back.

Soaking wet, Lance circled the object that was smoking in a crater on the beach. Whatever it was was on its side, half in the water half out, and seemed to be blue, but it was hard to tell in the distant light of the street lights and the moon.

But what Lance could see clearly was the bold lettering reading.

POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX

displayed proudly on the side.

'Huh,' Lance thought. 'The aliens have police. Who knew.'

Lances' next thought was, 'Mierda, aliens exist!'

And then the doors to the box burst open, and a wave of smoke wafted out.


	3. Good Men and Tired Eyes

Shiro couldn't sleep.

It wasn't uncommon for him to awake from a nightmare and lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, or if he was feeling particularly restless, do a workout.

But not this time.

This time his lack of sleep was entirely his fault, he couldn't stop going over what had happened in the last day, and there were still so many unanswered questions rolling around in his head.

It didn't help that the person who had caused so much confusion was still in the castle.

The Doctor.

Lance had asked him to stay, and Allura couldn't tell Lance or the Doctor no because the Doctor had just saved all of their lives and helped them get the Castle back.

And so the Doctor stayed.

It had only been for a few hours at the most, but the Doctor wasn't shy. He had bounced around the Castle, getting into things and taking the time to answer all of Pidges questions.

And there had been a lot of questions.

Surprisingly, Pidge didn't seem to understand how some of the technology worked. The Doctor had tried to explain, but Pidge had been determined, and last time Shiro had checked, she was still running tests on the Doctors ship; he had called it a TARDIS.

And as friendly as the Doctor seemed, Shiro couldn't sleep. There was someone new on the Castle, and it put him on edge even if the Doctor was a friend of Lance's.

An alien friend of Lance's. A friend who had taken him up to space when he was only fifteen.

They hadn't talked about it much, only mentioning that it had happened, and had gone on to make a plan about getting the Castle back, because at the time that was what was most important.

Only now, there was nothing left to distract from the fact that Lance had been taken up into space when he was fifteen.

Reasonably he knew, Pidge had been taken into space at fifteen also, but it seemed different with Lance.

Lance was too trusting, Lance had, on a whim, gone off into space.

Gone off into space with the Doctor.

Shiro wasn't exactly sure why he felt so uneasy about the whole situation, but he had a gut feeling about it.

Keith had called it his Space Dad instincts, Shiro had told him he was spending to much time with Lance and Pidge.

Shiro gave up on sleeping after a few hours of tossing and turning, and he had spent enough time training today; he wasn't like Keith, who didn't know his limits most days.

So instead, he got up and went on a walk through the Castle, hoping that it would help to clear his head.

Shiro wandered to the kitchen first, getting some water before making his way to the lounge. He had left his datapad in there earlier, and it had all of his books he liked to read when he couldn't sleep.

But before he could walk into the room, he realized that it was not empty.

The Doctor, who had been given a room of his own while he was here, was sitting on the couch, fiddling around with some sort of machine in his hand, and next to him was Lance.

Shiro realized all at once that the Doctor and Lance had not been able to catch up earlier today, they had never been alone to talk. And while Shiro knew it was wrong, he stopped just outside the room so no one would notice him and tried to listen to what was going on inside the room.

"...Became a Paladin of Voltron." That was the Doctor talking, and he still wasn't looking at Lance.

Lance was looking at the Doctor, though.

"Yeah I did, we are doing a lot of good here. But you knew that was how this would all turn out when we met, didn't you, Doctor?"

The Doctor gave Lance a lookout of the corner of his eye, "Spoilers." Was all that he said.

Lance grinned, and Shiro got the feeling that it was an inside joke.

The two sat in silence for a moment, before Lance broke the silence again.

"How long have you been traveling alone?" The question seemed to weigh heavily on Lance like he was dreading the answer.

The Doctor looked uncomfortable at the question, but also looked like he had been expecting it.

"A while."

Lance scowled, which was a look that Shiro rarely ever saw on Lance, who was usually so cheerful and bright.

"You know you should never be alone, Doctor."

This whole conversation was hard to follow for Shiro, who was an outsider to this conversation.

Then again, he was eavesdropping from the hallway, so he should have expected not to understand the conversation; it wasn't like he was a part of it.

"You could come with me again."

The Doctor laid out his offer, and it sounded so hopeful even Shiro's heart hurt a little.

"You know I can't do that anymore, Doctor; I have a job here to do now."

"I suppose you're right."

"You know you can always stay here or come and visit," Lance told the Doctor gently, placing his hand on his shoulder in comfort.

They sat like that for a while, and Shiro was beginning to feel uncomfortable until Lance eventually got up and left, leaving from the other door to most likely head to bed.

"You can come out now." The Doctor's voice broke through the silence that had settled upon the living room, and it startled Shiro, but he knew that he was caught and walked out into the living room to sit down across from the Doctor.

"You have known Lance for a while then." Shiro didn't phrase it was a question, and the Doctor didn't take it as one.

"He didn't explain it to you?" The Doctor wondered out loud before answering himself. "No, I suppose he wouldn't, wasn't very much time, and it's never easy."

"You tell me then." Shiro prompted. He still didn't feel very comfortable around the Doctor, and there was something about him that put Shiro on edge. The Doctor wasn't a very intimidating looking man by any means, it looked like a strong wind would blow him over, but even so, there was something about the Doctor that made Shiro nervous.

"I think that Lance would like to tell you all of those stories." The Doctor said it with a fond smile like he was reliving the adventures Lance and himself had been on.

Shiro couldn't find a reason to argue that point but was slightly disappointing; he wanted to hear from the Doctor's perspective along with Lances.

Instead, he asked another question, "Why shouldn't you travel alone?"

The Doctor finally looked up from whatever contraption he was fiddling with, looking straight at Shiro for the first time since he had met him.

And oh, now Shiro understood why the Doctor put him on edge, it was his eyes.

"They don't like it when I travel alone, think I can't take care of myself, can't handle it."

It was an honest answer, which surprised Shiro a little, but his focus was drawn elsewhere.

"They?"

The Doctor was looking back at the thing in his hands but answered Shiro anyway.

"The other people I traveled with, Lance met them all. I suppose he didn't tell you this but that day on the beach was just the beginning, I visited Lance often, he met most of the people I traveled with and tagged along lots of times."

And that was surprising news to Shiro. He had been told that the TARDIS was a time machine, which was hard to believe, but it was an easier pill to swallow, considering all he had seen up here in space. So he had tucked that thought away in his mind for things to freak out about later and had moved on.

Lance also hadn't given them a specific amount of time, but they all understood that he had traveled with the Doctor for longer than the one weekend. Shiro just hadn't considered that he had traveled with the Doctor more than once for long periods of time.

"But you are alone now." The Doctor winced, and Shiro almost felt sorry about it, but there was a terrible feeling settling in Shiro's stomach.

"Yes, I am."

"What happened to them?"

The Doctor's jaw clenched. "Some left me, some got left behind, and some, not many but some, died."

"You're dangerous then." That wasn't a question either.

"Yes."

"Then why did you invite Lance to travel with you, more than once?"

And that was the one thing that Shiro didn't understand.

"I don't know."

The feeling started bubbling, Shiro didn't get angry often, but he could recognize the beginnings of himself turning furious at that answer. The only thing holding it off was that the Doctor kept talking.

"I never know why; I only know who, so I invite them along, and they always say yes, how could they not? But somewhere along the way, they realize that the universe is vast and wonderful and very, very dark. But they are always brave, and they try and stay with me forever. Rose Tyler, Jack Harkness, Martha Jones, Donna Noble, Amy and Rory Pond, Clara Oswald, Bill Potts, and Nardole. They are just the most recent ones. I remember them all."

The Doctor paused, and Shiro could almost see him remembering everyone he ever traveled with.

"Lance met and lost them all too, but I made sure that I got Lance back home every time, he was so young, but I knew one day he would be up here, but spoilers, so I took him to the stars and showed him around."

Shiro didn't know how to respond to that, in a way it seemed like the Doctor was trying to protect Lance, but had also put him in danger. Shiro knew better then anyone what the Doctor meant when he said that space was dark. So while the Doctor had been trying to do good, it still made Shiro apprehensive, and the Doctor seemed to understand.

"I know you want me to tell you if I am a good man, but I don't know. I've been told I try to be. I know you care for all of them, and you have my word that no harm will come to Lance under my care while I am alive."

And while he still knew very little about the Doctor, just looking at him, you could tell that he was very lonely and very, very sad.

The Doctor stood suddenly, stretching, tossing the little contraption in his hands from side to side, "Takashi Shirogane," The Doctor said his name, not like he knew him, but like one might say the name, Neil Armstrong.

"Black Paladin of Voltron, one of the best pilots Earth has ever produced, you should get some sleep. You have some big days ahead of you."

And as the Doctor spoke, Shiro's exhaustion seemed to catch up to him all at once, and while he wasn't sure what exactly sure what the Doctor was talking about, he decided that for now, the Doctor could stay.

He might have been dangerous, but he was trying, and Shiro didn't think he was a threat to his family.


	4. Rose

Rose and the Doctor had crash-landed on the beach and swept him away with them, and he had traveled with them for nearly a month.

Rose was only a few years older than him, but Lance at the time had been short for his age, and Rose had taken it upon herself to make sure that he was taken care of.

"Because sometimes the Doctor forgets that we are human." She had told him one time while they had been in the TARDIS kitchen, making what was supposed to be Garlic Knots but was starting to seem more like dough blobs.

"You have to remind him that humans need sleep and food and sometimes need to go back and see their family."

Lance had understood all of this because the Doctor was so distinctly not human, and Lance was pretty sure he didn't sleep. When he mentioned this to Rose, however, she just laughed and shook her head.

"Of course, he sleeps, just not as much as we do."

"So when does he go and see his family?" He had asked Rose innocently.

Roses expression turned sad, pulling the Garlic Knots out of the space oven that cooked everything in only a few seconds.

"The Doctor doesn't have a family like you, and I do, to the Doctor, we are his family."

And Lance was smart enough to understand what that meant, and he never brought it up again.

Traveling with the Doctor was fun, everything was new, and everything was exciting, and sometimes it made Lance never want to go back to Earth. But then he would remember his mother's hugs and his brother's and sisters' laughter and his grandmother's stories, and he would ache to go home so badly.

So he did what he always did and went to talk to Rose.

"I miss home." He told her plainly, not sugarcoating it.

Rose had been flipping through a magazine that they had picked up from the last planet they had been on, she had called everything in it utter rubbish, but she kept it around anyway. Now though, she was giving him her full attention.

"If I go home," He began. "Just for a little while to see my family, will you make sure the Doctor comes back next weekend to get me again?"

And there it was, the reason he was so scared. He was scared that the Doctor would drop him off and leave him on Earth and forget about him.

But Rose would never let him.

"I promise." She told him, pulling him into a hug.

"Remember what I said? Sometimes the Doctor forgets that we're human. So us humans have to stick together, right?"

"Right."

It had been surreal after that to get dropped off in his backyard as if nothing had ever happened with the promise to be back the next weekend to go traveling again.

Lance had rushed into the house full of energy and ready to hug everyone in his family, only to be greeted to an empty house and the memory that everyone had left for the weekend and had only left him behind to let him study.

It was going to be a long week.

His family's absence had allowed him to pack a bag to take with him next weekend, though. He had been using the fully stocked closet the TARDIS had had in his room, but it would be nice to have his own clothes and things while traveling next time, also his cell phone, that would be nice to have too.

His family came back for the weekend, and it was strange to sit with them and have dinner and have everyone talking about what they had done this weekend and for him to sit there and pretend like he hadn't been gone for an entire month.

The feeling didn't go away, he sat in school and looked out the window and would stare up at the sky and wonder what the Doctor was doing now, how Rose was doing, how long it would have been for them when they picked him up this weekend.

It got him in trouble, but he couldn't help doing it, he had witnessed another side to life, and he couldn't just fit back into what he had been.

And then, finally, the weekend came.

His mother had commented that he had been very energetic all day, but he couldn't help it. His bag was packed and ready to go, and as his family fell asleep that night, he crept out the back door, back into the yard to stare at the spot the TARDIS had landed in when dropping him off.

Maybe Lance thought as the night crept on, he should have tried to get a more specific time that the Doctor would be coming to get him. The weekend was two whole days long, and the Doctor could come and get him at any time.

Lance woke up the next morning to his grandmother, shaking him awake and asking him what he thought he was doing camping outside with no tent.

His siblings laughed at him when his mother scolded him at breakfast after being told what he had done. Lance was just glad that they thought he was camping outside and not trying to leave.

And yet, despite his siblings teasing, he crept out the back door again that night and sat in the same spot staring out at the empty backyard.

"Come on, Rose." He pleaded with the empty air. "Us humans have to stick together, right?"

The yard gave no response.

Lance woke to someone shaking him awake for the second day in a row. As he jerked awake, he realized that he as going to be so grounded for sleeping outside two days in a row with no tent.

His next thought was that it was not his grandmother shaking him awake.

"Come on, Lance," A familiar voice said in his ear. "Back to the stars."

Lance was awake immediately and was grabbing his bag as Rose helped him to his feet, and off they went to the TARDIS.

"Was it nice seeing your family again?" Rose asked him as she sat on his bed and watched him unpack the bag he had brought along.

"It was nice." He told her honestly. "But it is nice coming back here too."

Rose smiled, "Yeah, I know what you mean."

And Lance knew she did.

After Lance unpacked, they went back to the control room where the Doctor always seemed to be fiddling with this or that and caught up and talked about what they had been dong while Lance had been away. It had only been a few days for them, and they had spent them visiting Rose's past. It was an emotional time for Rose as she had witnessed her dad being hit by the car that killed him, but Lance could tell that she was glad that she had been able to do it.

Lance told them that he was going to try applying for the Galaxy Garrison soon, and how his mother was nervous but supportive of him, and how his oldest sister was moving back into town with her two little kids so Lance would be able to babysit them.

Rose asked him what the Galaxy Garrison was, and Lance was so startled that she didn't know what the number one program in space travel was that they completely missed the look on the Doctor's face when he mentioned the Galaxy Garrison.

Lance and Rose meanwhile were able to figure out that while the Earth that they both came from seemed familiar, Lance lived 100 years in the future compared to Rose, something that shocked them both as they had always assumed that they lived in generally the same time.

"Don't go giving Rose any more Spoilers now, Lance." Was all the Doctor told him when the Doctor finally joined the conversation.

After that, they continued traveling, and soon enough, Captain Jack Harkness joined them. He was a big flirt but fun to be around, and Lance got to laugh at it all, as Jack never flirted with him because in Jack's own words, "He didn't flirt with fetuses."

And maybe that should have been insulting, but Lance didn't mind; he made Rose happy, which made Lance happy because somewhere along the way, Rose had managed to find a place in his heart right next to his sister Veronica.

Lance knew he made the Doctor happy too, to see the TARDIS with people in it, people whom he loved and made him laugh.

Lance secretly thought that was all the Doctor wanted was not to be alone anymore.

Traveling with the Doctor was fun, but it was scary too. The Doctor must have taken great care in making sure Lance only went on the fun adventures the first month he was here because nothing like the Slitheen in Cardiff had ever happened to Lance before. Still, Lance knew the Doctor was important in the universe, and the universe couldn't wait for the Doctor forever.

But it was okay. Lance could be brave and save people with the Doctor, Jack, and Rose. And it wasn't all bad; they still had lots of fun.

Lance still went home after enough time had passed, only to get picked up again on the weekend by the Doctor and the others.

One time he remembered with a fond sort of confusion the Doctor, Rose, and Jack had picked him up, and Rose and Jack had asked him while they were relaxing in what passed as the TARDIS living room what he thought of big blue lions.

Lance had laughed, wondering where they came up with this stuff before asking, "Why did you see one?"

The two had just shared a look before nodding. Lance ignored it and simply told them, "Well, maybe one day, I will get to see these big blue lions too."

"Maybe." Was all Rose said to him before they continued talking about what had happened while he had been gone, telling him a particularly memorable story about the Doctor getting chased down the street by a pet dog.

The second time Lance had gone home after traveling before they had ever met Jack, it had been after he had nearly died, it had been a very close call, and when they had reunited, he had gotten a relieved hug from everyone.

That weekend when the Doctor had picked him up, he had given Lance a necklace.

"Don't lose it." The Doctor had told him sternly. "It's in case we ever get separated I have a way to find you, I had to harness a dwarf star to make it."

Lance, who had a good record of losing things, never lost the necklace.

One day, Lance got dropped off at his house for the week, and his mother commented that morning that he must've grown a full inch overnight.

Lance chuckled but felt terrible. What had only been around four weeks, there had been months with the Doctor, Rose, and Jack.

And then one day, they didn't come to pick him up on the weekend.

At first, Lance chalked it up to the Doctor missing the date and eagerly awaited their arrival that Monday and Tuesday. And then eventually the whole week passed, and there was still no sign of the Doctor.

So Lance chalked it up to the Doctor accidentally missing a week, the Doctor was not very good with linear time, and so it was bound to happen eventually.

And then that weekend passed with no arrival, and Lance wondered fearfully if something had happened to them.

Lance refused to consider the possibility that they had simply forgotten about him, or decided that they did not want to travel with him anymore. Lance knew that that wasn't possible, that they cared for him deeply, and when he had been trapped in that room with the bomb, they had been so scared. And they had hugged him as his family did him when they had seen that he was okay.

So Lance waited.

It was only a few days into the second week when a noise in his room woke him up from a dead sleep.

But Lance would recognize that noise anywhere.

It was a good thing; Lance thought as he jumped out of bed to find his shoes, that his parents were currently staying at his grandmother's and that his brother slept like the dead.

The box completely materialized into Lances' already tiny room, and the face that poked out of the box was one that Lance did not recognize.

It startled Lance, and the only thing keeping him from grabbing the baseball bat on the floor of his room was the familiar face that poked out next.

"Rose!" Lance yelled, rushing forwards.

"I am so glad you are okay! It's been two weeks! Where is the Doctor?"

Lance learned that Jack was gone and that the Doctor was able to change his face, after the regeneration the TARDIS had needed some time and this was the closest that they had been able to get to where they had last dropped him off.

The new Doctor was younger, had different hair and smaller ears, but his eyes were the same, and Lance continued traveling with them. The Doctor had offered to leave, he understood if it was too much for Lance, but Lance wasn't going to leave now, not because the adventures were terrific, but because he had found people he genuinely cared about. And the Doctor might have changed his face, but if his eyes were the same, that was enough for Lance.

And then came the Army of Ghosts.

Lance finally got to meet the infamous Jackie Tyler that had slapped the Doctor. Rose had gleefully told him all sorts of stories about her mother, and in return, Lance had told Rose all about his family even though they would probably never meet.

It was kind of comical, meeting Mrs. Tyler, she was just as Rose had described to him. But they did not have very much time to talk, as soon they were at the Torchwood Institute.

What happened after that was nothing short of an alien invasion as they tried to close the rift, people that the Doctor and Rose knew were there, but so were people from the other dimension. Lance wondered who all of these people were, but there wasn't much time for introductions.

Lance had never been to a parallel world, he hadn't been in the TARDIS for that adventure, but he had heard about it while they ate ice cream, or what tasted like ice cream in the year 5689 on top of the Crystal Spear on planet Golsdum.

But that just meant that Lance didn't have any void stuff on him. He was safe from being sucked into the Void, but Rose and the Doctor were not. Rose being sent away to the other dimension broke his heart, and when he looked over to the Doctor, he knew that both of the Doctor's hearts had been broken too.

But Rose was back just as quickly as she had been sent away. She glanced at Lance, but her attention was fully pulled to the Doctor as he tried to reason with her to leave, but Lance knew that Rose would not be reasoned with as he continued to do what the Doctor had told him to on the computer.

The only reason Lance had not been sent away was because he had never been through the rift before because his entire family was still here on Earth, and it would do more harm than good to send him away.

He kept working until the levers were activated and then moved to the side, crouching down in a corner and trying to get as far out of the way of any potential flying object that had Void stuff on them while the Doctor and Rose held on for their lives.

But then, the lever wasn't locked, and Lance started to make his ways towards it, not feeling the pull of the Void at all. Daleks were flying overhead that he had to dodge and papers being pulled through the air that was hitting him in the face, and Rose got there faster.

And then she was gone.

The Doctor wasn't crying, but then again, Lance wasn't sure he had ever seen the Doctor cry or if the Doctor had any more tears left to cry.

But Lance was there, and he hugged the Doctor until people started coming in to find out what had happened, and then he took the Doctor back to the TARDIS.

The Doctor started flipping switched and pulling levers, and Lance had been traveling with the Doctor long enough to recognize when he was on a mission. He stood there next to the controls and waited for the Doctor to finish what he was doing, but when he felt the TARDIS take off, he couldn't help but ask, "Where are we going?"

"To say goodbye." It was the only response that he got, but it answered all the other questions that were swirling around in his head.

It told him that Rose was gone forever and that they weren't going to be able to get her back. 

Soon enough, they had landed, and the Doctor started fiddling with something again before he was told sternly to "stand there and stay put," and then, with a click of the sonic screwdriver, Rose Tyler appeared before them.

Or well, they appeared before her, it was strange, Lance could feel himself on the TARDIS, knew he was still there but was just being projected here.

The Doctor explained to Rose how they were here, which was good to know that the Doctor cared about Rose so much he would go so far as to say goodbye.

Then Rose's attention shifted to him.

"Lance, you remember that day in the kitchen, the first time we tried making Garlic Knots because you missed home?"

He nodded, not trusting himself to speak.

"Remember what I told you, and look after the Doctor for me."

Lance wanted to hug her so badly but knew the image would be ruined, so instead, he smiled and said, "Of course I will."

And then Rose and the Doctor said their goodbyes, but the Doctor was cut short, and as abruptly as they appeared on the beach, they were gone and back on the TARDIS.

Lance pretended not to notice the tear traveling down the Doctor's cheek as they sat there, not knowing what to do, but feeling the loss deep in their chests.

"Alright, then." The Doctor spoke first, and Lance finally looked at him, noticing that the Doctor had dried his face and was moving around the TARDIS. Lance couldn't help but see how slow the Doctor was moving in comparison to his ordinarily energetic self.

"Time to get you home."

It took Lance a moment to figure out what the Doctor meant, but once he did, Lance was having none of it.

"No!" It was practically screamed at the Doctor, surprising both the Doctor and Lance himself.

"You can't just send me off after all that's happened!" Lance resisted, moving away from the Doctor as he tried to move closer to him.

"I'm not trying to send you away." The Doctor reasoned with Lance.

"Yes, you are!" Lance replied venomously. "You are trying to send me away, and Rose just told me to take care of you!"

The Doctor's face softened at that, and it seemed like all at once the fight left him.

"Can I see your phone?" The Doctor asked instead, holding his hand out.

It was from out of nowhere, and it surprised Lance enough that he was reaching into his pocket to find his phone before he realized what he was doing. The Doctor grabbed it, soniced the back of the phone for a moment before flipping it back around and typing on the screen for a few moments.

The Doctor held it out to him, and he took it, looking at it carefully and trying to figure out what had been done to it.

"It's a Super Phone now." The Doctor told him. "And I put the TARDIS phone number in it so you can call me whenever you like. I am not sending you away, Lance." The Doctor pulled him into a hug, and Lance quickly hugged him back.

"You have been away for too long, and you still have a life there. I have to take you back, but don't worry." The Doctor pulled back from the hug to look him in the eyes. "I'll come and pick you up soon. You still have your necklace?"

Lance nodded.

"Then I will be able to find you."

And with that, the Doctor took him home, landing in the backyard where he always did.

Lance took a tiny step outside the TARDIS, turning to look back as he did so, watching the Doctor follow him to the door but not stepping outside the TARDIS doors.

"Don't take to long, Doctor?" Lance asked, timidly, sounding every bit his fifteen years.

"Won't be long at all." The Doctor promised, and with that, he was gone, and Lance watched at the TARDIS disappeared.

Lance turned back towards the house, no one was awake yet, and he let himself in quietly, walking up the stairs and avoiding the creaky stairs and the toys that had been left around the house from his baby niece and nephew.

Lance made it back to his room before taking off his shoes and crawling into bed.

For a moment, he just stared at the ceiling before he let himself burst into tears.


	5. Martha

It had been exactly 16 days since Lance had last seen the Doctor.

Lance hadn't called the Doctor yet. As angry as he had been at the Doctor for dropping him off at home, and as much as he wanted to stay with the Doctor, he had no idea what he would say to him if he did call.

Lance had cried all night after the Doctor had first dropped him off in his backyard, and he thought that would be the worst of it, that first night at home knowing that Rose was gone. 

And then the next weekend had come, and he had laid in his bed, unable to cry anymore but unable to go to sleep and waited for someone who wasn't coming.

Lance laid in his bed and stared at his glow in the dark star-covered ceiling and felt empty inside. 

It didn't get better after that, but no one knew what Lance had been up to over the last couple of months, so there was no reason in his family's eyes for him to be sad, so Lance pretended not to be.

He pretended to be fine for 16 days, and then he met Hunk.

His name wasn't actually Hunk, but Lance was terrible at remembering names and really good at remembering nicknames, so Hunk became Hunk forever in Lance's mind.

Hunk was terrific, when Lance had told him that he had applied for the Galaxy Garrison for the next school year, and he was amazed to realize that Hunk had also applied and was waiting to hear about the school.

They were instant friends after that.

Hunk didn't actually live in the area and was only here for spring break on vacation with his family before they went home, but Lance and he just clicked, and so one day when Hunk asked him why he looked so sad, Lance couldn't help it and broke down crying again.

And Hunk was incredible because he just scooped Lance up in his arms and held him tight as he cried his eyes out, soothing him as best he could without knowing why Lance was crying.

Eventually, Lance was out of tears and could only sit there and try and catch his breath as he let out dry sobs, and he felt ridiculous crying about this because Rose wasn't dead, but she was gone forever, and Lance missed her so very much.

Spring Break ended, and Hunk left, but not without exchanging their information and the promise to be roommates if they both got into the Galaxy Garrison for next year.

And then exactly 23 days after they had lost Rose, Lance woke up to the most beautiful sound he had ever heard.

Not even bothering to put shoes on, he raced down his stairs and out to the backyard, nearly tripping over a potted plant in his hast he watched as the TARDIS materialized in front of him.

At first, no one came out of the box, and he was just about ready to storm inside when the door swung open.

The person on the other side was not the Doctor, and she definitely was not Rose.

Whoever it was stared right back at him, and it seemed like they were locked in the most confusing staring contest ever played.

Then the other door swung open, and the Doctor waltzed out.

"Doctor, who's this?"

The question left both his and the stranger's mouths at the same time as they turned to address the Doctor, but they went back to staring at each other as soon as they registered that the other had talked.

The Doctor was oblivious to the confused tension that was slowly forming between the two.

"Martha Jones meets Lance McClain!" The Doctor introduced quite happily and quite loudly, and all at once, Lance realized that his parents were upstairs sleeping, and this was not the place to be having this conversation.

"Shhh! Doctor, you will wake up my parents!" Lance whispered as loudly as he dared before pushing the Doctor back into the TARDIS.

Martha followed him out of confusion, and soon the doors were closed behind them.

For a moment, Lance stood inside the TARDIS, letting himself get used to the ship again before rounding on the Doctor and bringing him into a hug.

"Doctor!" The other man's coat slightly muffled his voice. "How long has it been for you?"

The Doctor hugged him back tightly but didn't answer, but Lance knew that that meant it had been a long while since the Doctor had last seen him.

"Sorry to interrupt," Martha's voice spoke up from where she stood near the TARDIS controls. "But the Doctor said you were Lance, right? How do you know the Doctor?"

"I travel with him," Lance answered, even though he was pretty sure he knew where the confusion was coming from. "He never mentioned me, did he?"

Lance couldn't help but cross his arms, but he wasn't pouting.

Martha seemed shocked. "But you are so young!"

"I'm fifteen!" Lance protested. "That's not that young!"

"Oh my gosh Doctor, he's only fifteen!" Martha rounded on the Doctor like he hadn't already known his age.

The Doctor looked like a deer caught in headlights. "Lance is a special case." The Doctor defended.

"Anyway," Lance drew the attention back to him. "As great as it is that I am fifteen, I am currently in my PJ's and barefoot, so I am going to my room to change."

He shot finger guns at them as he left; it was a habit he had picked up recently. He had done it as a joke once in front of his niece and nephew, and it had made them laugh, so he had kept doing it, and now it had become a habit.

Lance hurried out of the room and into the hallway, he wasn't running away from Martha, his feet were getting cold from standing on the metal floors without socks or shoes, but it had been shocking to see a new face on board the TARDIS.

The Doctor had been away for a while, enough time to get lonely apparently, and he had met Martha and offered to take her to see the universe.

Lance couldn't blame her for saying yes.

Lance was only a little way down the hallway before he heard the footsteps following him. It wasn't the Doctor's long gate, so he figured it was Martha. He was proven right when only a second later, she was walking alongside him.

"I think that we got off on the wrong foot," Martha spoke up. "I was just surprised that you popped up out of nowhere, I mean, I don't mean to be rude, but he never mentioned you."

Lance chose to ignore that, he wasn't sure why the Doctor had never mentioned him before, but Martha seemed nice, and if he was going to be traveling with her, he should probably get along with her. Instead of commenting on what she had said, Lance changed the subject.

"How long have you been traveling with the Doctor?" He asked her, genuinely curious about the answer.

"Not very long."

And then, Lance came up with a brilliant idea.

"Well, you know what this means?" Lance clapped his hands together, rounding on her and smiling as she gave him an unsure smile back.

"No?"

"Sleepover!" He yelled it, throwing his hands up into the air before running down the hallway.

"Put on PJ's and grab your blankets and meet me in the living room!" He yelled back down the hallway as he came to a stop outside his room in the TARDIS.

Lances room in the TARDIS was a lot like his room at home, there were various knick-knacks and pictures scattered throughout the room and a few articles of clothing from different time periods spread around as well that Lance had never had the chance to put away the last time he was on the TARDIS. Instead of glow in the dark stickers on the ceiling, however, the Doctor had made him a living galaxy that would float around his room glowing dimly when he clapped his hands together.

But Lance wasn't here to admire his room.

Lance ripped all of the blankets off the big bed that was in his room, all of the sheets colored a beautiful blue, and grabbed a pair of warm socks for his feet before he was back in the hallway, ready for a sleepover.

Martha had changed into Pajamas and grabbed her blankets from her room but was standing in the hallway Lance had left her in looking completely befuddled about why exactly she was standing in a hallway holding her sheets while in her PJ's.

"Martha!" Lance called to get her attention.

She looked up and smiled at him, but he could tell she was nervous and unsure about this.

"I thought we were meeting in the living room?" Lance said to her as they both started to move towards where the living room was.

"I don't know where the living room is." She told Lance, sounding a bit sheepish. It surprised him that Martha had never been to the living room when Rose had been on board, they were always in the living room hanging out and having sleepovers when the adventures were over. Or in the kitchen making snacks before moving to the living room to eat said snacks.

That was the problem, Lance realized all at once. Martha was alone with the Doctor on this ship, and Lance had always had Rose and then eventually Jack.

They had been the ones to start the sleepovers, and sometimes the Doctor joined them, and sometimes he didn't.

More often then not, he did.

But Martha had never been there to see that side of the Doctor, and Lance couldn't help but wonder what she did when she wasn't exploring the universe, and they were forced to take breaks.

Did she sit in her room or wander the TARDIS, relax in the control room, and watch the Doctor work on his projects?

When was the last time the Doctor had taken a break from the world-saving and had fun?

It was strange to Lance to be the companion who knew the most about the Doctor. To realize that he was the one who was the more experienced of the two of them when that had always been Rose's job before.

Well, Lance thought, a sleepover was a good place to start.

"Don't worry," Lance told Martha as they walked into the living room. "The TARDIS likes me, so she normally keeps the living room and kitchen in one place when I am looking for them, sometimes she likes to move things around."

"Is that why I have trouble finding the kitchen?" Martha asked in shock as she cocooned herself in her blankets and settled down onto the couch in the living room, looking around the room curiously.

Lance followed suit, wrapping himself up in the blue blankets from his room and putting on the socks for his cold feet before smiling at Martha happily.

"Yup! And now that we are comfortable, it's time to trade stories! What kind of adventures has the Doctor taken you on?"

Martha told him about a hospital that appeared on the moon, William Shakespeare, the wordsmith, and New Earth that had cat nurses and old heads in jars.

"That's when he told me that he was the last, you know?" Martha whispered into the room, clutching the blanket around her shoulders and staring at one of the TARDIS emergency lights that were still aglow on the wall.

"He told me about his planet, and how wonderful it was, I think he must miss it so badly some days."

Lance curled in on himself a little, he had known about the Time War and Gallifrey and how lonely the Doctor was, and he was glad that Martha was able to recognize this in the Doctor.

"He just doesn't like being alone." He told Martha. "I think he was alone for a while, it was only 23 days for me, but I think he was traveling alone for too long. The Doctor and the TARDIS, we are all they have, and they love us, but there have been others, and they're not around anymore, they have no choice but to trust us to take care of him. The Doctor doesn't have a family like you, and I do, to the Doctor, we are his family."

Martha was silent for a moment before she spoke up.

"You traveled with her, didn't you? You traveled with Rose?"

The mention of her name made Lance's eyes water, but he fought it down and answered the question, his voice only sounding a little off. "Yeah, she was like family, she always was taking care of the Doctor and me."

"I'm sorry." Martha sounded like she was upset too, whether she was upset for him or about something else Lance didn't know.

"She taught me everything she knew about the TARDIS and the Doctor and how to use the space oven," Lance said, chuckling.

"She was always saying that we humans have to stick together, so what do you say, Martha Jones, more sleepovers in the future?" Lance held his breath as he waited for a response, Martha and he had gotten off to an interesting start, but he didn't want to make their travels miserable, and he hoped they would get along.

"More sleepovers in the future." Martha agreed, no doubt in her voice. "But if you know how to use anything in that space kitchen of his next time we do this, we need some snacks."

Lance chuckled, feeling himself relax as he agreed.

The Doctor found them asleep on the couch the next morning, and they all made their way to the kitchen together to make waffles on what Lance called the space stove.

That day the Doctor landed them in New York, and they went on their first adventure together, although it turned out to be more of a nightmare than anything when the Daleks showed themselves.

Then they were back in the TARDIS and heading towards Martha's time.

"What year do you live in Martha?" Lance asked from his position where he was dangling from the TARDIS railing, swinging himself back and forth a little for amusement.

"What do you mean, what time am I from?" Martha asked, watching him in amusement as his fingers almost slipped, and he was forced to grasp the railing desperately as he regained his grip.

"Well, we might be from different times, you know? What year were you born?" Lance hauled himself back over the railing as he asked this question, flopping onto the floor in a heap as he did so.

"1986," Martha said, indulging him as he got to his feet.

Lance grinned widely like he had won something. "I am born about 100 years later than that, guess I'm from the future."

Martha's jaw dropped. "No way."

The Doctor chose that moment to flip the switch that would send them through time, and everyone reached out to grab onto something as they were hurtled through space and time to reach Martha's apartment in the year 2008.

They landed and started heading towards the door, Martha leading the way.

From behind her, she could hear the Doctor warn Lance, "Spoilers."

Lance laughed. "I know, Doctor, I haven't said anything."

The Lazarus Experiment is a disaster, and Lance is relieved to step back into the TARDIS when it is all over. He doesn't realize that the Doctor and Martha haven't followed him into the TARDIS until he is already settled into the hammock the Doctor had set up for him in the control room to lounge while he worked.

He's debating between just waiting until they join him and getting up to see what's holding them up when they walk through the TARDIS door, both are smiling, so Lance isn't too worried about whatever held them up.

"Doctor," Lance says from his hammock as he makes it swing back and forth. "I think it's time for me to go home."

Martha gasps quietly from where she is leaning against the railings and Lance realizes they never explained to her how his traveling with the Doctor works, that he would be back as soon as they had the time to swing by and pick him up, and he is about to explain it to her when the Doctor nods. "I suppose it is about that time, isn't it? Don't want you gone too long. Don't need you failing another test because the last time you looked at the material was two months ago."

Lance scowled at the mention of his failed history test.

"My mother wouldn't let me leave the house for two weeks after that."

"But you did leave the house." The Doctor points out with a smirk, knowing that he had picked Lance up sometime between the first of those weeks and the second.

"Yeah, but she didn't know that." Lance pointed out before finally turning to Martha, who, by this point, had figured out that Lance would be coming back.

"I'm still in school, so the Doctor picks me up and drops me off a lot, he is supposed to pick me up on the weekend of every week, don't let him forget me will you?" Lance asks her only half-serious.

Martha grins at him. "I'd never let him forget you, us humans have to stick together, right?"

Lance beams back.

Now she is getting it.

Lance doesn't fail his history test, or his science test for that matter and manages to get through the school week with no issue. Friday night, his family goes to the beach, and Lance surfs for what feels like the first time in ages.

He takes a break from surfing and helps his niece and nephew build a sandcastle that resembled more than just a blob of sand. Eventually, his brother came over to help them build the mote, but the three-year-olds attention is quickly drawn from building the sandcastle to destroying the sandcastle, and there is nothing left of it by the time the sun sets and the family leaves the beach.

Lance hasn't stopped smiling all day, and it a nice feeling as he takes care of his surfboard and climbs into the shower and then his bed.

He wakes up the next morning, and his mom asks him to take their dog on a walk to the park, and Lance readily agrees, it's a beautiful day outside and their dog Orion, Lance had named him, was getting old and loved morning walks.

By the time they arrived at the park, Orion was walking slow and seemed exhausted, so Lance found a bench underneath a tree and let the poor dog rest and sat staring out at the park and taking his time in admiring the rare moment of peace and silence.

Until someone sat down next to him.

Lance tensed and looked over, relaxing when he saw that it was just Martha.

Martha was sitting and staring out at the park-like Lance had been doing only moments earlier, taking in the silence and the peace of the moment.

And then Martha spoke.

"Things went badly since we dropped you off."

Lance's heart sank, and he could feel himself stop breathing.

"We ran into this man at the end of the universe, and he turned out to be another Time Lord, but he was mad. He took control of the Earth and captured the Doctor, and I got away, but I had to walk the entire Earth."

Martha was quiet, and Lance could only imagine what horrors she was reliving.

"I saved the world," Martha told him, and it sounded to him like she was still trying to believe it herself.

Lance reached out and held her hand tight as they looked out over the park. "But you're leaving," Lance told her because he knew.

"But, I'm leaving." She agreed.

"I know you lost Rose," Martha began, and Lance tensed even now at the mention of Rose's name. "And I wanted to make sure that you knew I was still here for you," Martha told him quietly. "The Doctor said you have a SuperPhone, and I wanted you to have my number just in case."

Martha took a deep breath. "It feels silly, leaving him, leaving you and all of this behind. But I have to; after everything, I have to leave."

Lance still couldn't find the right words to say, so he just tightened his hold on Martha's hand. Martha hadn't been around as long as Rose had, but she had just as quickly come to find herself a place in his heart right next to Rose and Veronica.

"And listen here, I gave the Doctor a phone I could call if I ever needed him, and you better make sure that he answers it."

Lance chuckled but agreed, and Martha kept going.

"I was going to leave, but I couldn't leave without saying goodbye. And I remembered what you said about the Doctor not liking to be alone, so I made him come by here so I could see you, and so maybe the Doctor wouldn't have to be alone."

Lance pulled Martha in for a hug, and she hugged him back just as fiercely.

He would miss her, but he could always talk to her if he needed to, and this wasn't a goodbye.

She said he would see her again.

And he believed her.

**Author's Note:**

> This is also posted at FanFiction.net


End file.
